or I’m trying to anyway.

I knew I was in trouble when I sat down on the mat and all those lunges and warrior poses from yesterday came back to me. He had us doing almost non-stop lunges for the full hour, so my butt and thighs are killing me.

Fortunately, a few new lunges, a lengthy pigeon pose, and a half dozen sun salutations loosened me right up. Another sweat-soaked practice, but I don’t feel as beaten down as I did after yesterday.

Should get right to work now, but I think hubby and I are off for a very snow-packed walk on the trails first.

Last night’s run was tough. Six 90-second intervals. Started the first one at 4.7 and had lung and throat pain almost immediately. Felt like what I think asthma must feel like. Second run I took it down to 4.0 and that at least took care of my fear of never breathing right again. The next 2 I did at 4.5, and the last two at 5.0.

I dream of being one of those tiny runners I see on the trail: chatting casually with a friend, looking terrific in tight running gear, and showing no physical distress at all. At present, I’m a sweaty, sloppy, blochey-faced, huffing and puffing, “it’s the big one, I’m comin’ Elizabeth,” hot mess.

So that was last night’s run. Today I borrowed hubby’s car so I could make it down unplowed streets to get to yoga. There were only four of us there, and the instructor was one I had a few times back in October for wimpy candlelight yoga. But he’s no wimpy instructor. By 30-minutes in the sweat was pooling in my glasses, and I was wondering if I’d make it to the next pose, much less the next sequence of poses.

I sortof love that feeling. I need to learn to love it when I run, but for now I really like that I dig that “I can’t possibly go on” feeling when doing yoga. Or maybe it’s that I love pushing beyond that feeling. This, btw, is why yoga videos haven’t been working for me lately: I need a studio atmosphere to push me a little further each time, and this studio has been consistently good about challenging me.

No yoga last night and only a short (very cold) walk with hubby. Today no progress on work.

at.

all.

But there’s still hope for me. I need to get my run done for the day and tomorrow I’ll hit a yoga class (to start the weekend right), and then watch me work and workout!

Yeah boy.

Gonna be good.

Damn…would someone just do this stupid run for me? I know once I get going it’ll be good…plus I can’t really justify all the cool running gear purchases I hope to make if I’m not actually going to run…so what the hell am I waiting for.

I’ve watched the show “Christina” few times on the pbs network, Create, and she’s pretty fun. She talks about some of the health benefits of a vegan diet, makes some corny jokes, and cooks beautiful, fresh (easy-to-make) food. Her philosophy is to keep the recipes simple and delicious so that folks will cook at home.

The exclamation point at the end of my title is me being positive and affirming. I’d have preferred at least a full pound loss, but I’m not going to bemoan a loss in any week. And the last week included a three-day trip to the inlaws, which usually means a gain. And my food (portion sizes and choices) was good, exercise was also good.

Slow and steady, slow and steady.

Repeated day 2 of week 2 of the C25K yesterday morning. Did the last three runs a 5.0, so I guess it’s time to push onward to day 3 now….er…tomorrow.

We’re on break this week, so yesterday I got hubby to help me clean the house from top to bottom. It’s been months (months!) since it’s been so clean. This means I have no excuse not to respond to and copy edit chapters for two different projects, rate student essays for a department award, and grade a ton of online work and papers. Groceries are in, laundry’s almost completed, house is clean…I could organize a closet or two, but at some point the school work has to get done…

OR…I could call today a holiday and just watch the stack of mystery DVDs I checked out of the library just now. Guess which option I’m leaning towards.

Breakfast was coffee with soy milk

Lunch is curry tofu with mashed cauliflower

Dinner will be a vegan stuffed eggplant.

If no walk with hubby tonight (cause he’s taking this “get shit done over break” thing seriously), then yoga.

Visiting the inlaws and hubby’s twin’s new baby. I’m sort of amazed that I’ve managed to make this a vegan-friendly trip. I’d prepared myself not to p!$$ people off by being all “I can’t eat that,” but we ate out both nights (and I had dinner leftovers for lunch on one day), so it came down to me just making vegan choices.

If we get home early enough tonight, I’ll do my run. I should be on run 3 of week 2, but after a long weekend away, I don’t think there’ll be any harm doing run 2 of week 2. Run 3 has more 90-second runs than run 2, so…

Two things I’m trying to do this time around that I didn’t do the last time I did the C25K program: 1. keep the run speed higher (4.5 for all but the last two runs when I do 5.0 if I feel I can), and 2. try to remember that I’m not doing this for myself now, I’m doing it for myself two months from now…the better I train now, the better prepared I’ll be for a 5K in April. In April I’d like to be able to look back and be thankful that I did the hard work now and laid the foundation for running a 5K rather than gave up on it.

Tomorrow’s my weigh-in day. Fingers crossed…I didn’t snack at all, made smart choices for meals, and had only two Manhattan’s on Saturday night to drink…usually trips to the inlaws aren’t boozy, but they are beer-y, and those calories add up quickly.

Did Week 1, Day 3 for a second time on Monday. Just to make sure I wasn’t rushing into anything.

So tonight I do Week 2, Day 1 with some 90 second runs. If it’s too much, I’ll run at 4.0, but I’d like to try to keep things at 4.5 as much as possible as I train.

And the vegan thing’s a keeper. Back in the day it must’ve been impossible, but these days there’s so many dairy-free substitutes and the internet is just packed with wonderful recipes and good advice on eating out and such. So it’s a no-brainer.

I’m eating mostly whole foods, but I’ve got a soy creamer for the morning coffee, and tonight I picked up two pints of dairy-free ice “cream.” Excellent tasting, but full of sugar at 170 calories for 1/2 cup. Since the rest of my daily calories are so low anyway, this seems like an indulgence I can afford to make from time to time. Actually, I’ve always had a take-it-or-leave-it attitude towards ice cream, but I wanted hubby to see that he wouldn’t be missing much as a vegan. Who am I kidding? He’ll never be a vegan.

Anyway, we can deal with a vegan/non-vegan lifestyle, I think.

Down 1.4 pounds for the week. Hooray! Losses are so few and far between that this one had me jumping for joy.

Well, I think not so much tonight. The yoga sort of kicked my butt yesterday and today, and I’d rather come at the treadmill fresh rather than sore and tired.

So my weekend workouts worked out this way:

Friday: no yoga because there was 6-7 inches of snow to clear off the driveway first. Helped hubby do our extra long driveway, using the Yooper Scoops, and then did the neighbor’s driveway just cause. Then a 30-min walk/run, and a 15-min walk with the dog.

Saturday: Basic yoga with slow vinyasa and 50-min walk in the snow with hubby and dog.

Sunday: Basic yoga with short form ashtanga (don’t even ask what that means ’cause I’ve no idea) and a lot of couch surfing.

I’m at 1288 calories for the day, and I’ll probably grab another tea to sip all night. The bagel was a stupid mistake: too many empty carbs and not all that satisfying. But it was an after-yoga impulse choice, so I need to keep a check on those and have ready, healthy food on hand instead.

Not a bad day or week. Not awesome, but not too bad. We’ll see what my weigh-in tomorrow shows.

I knew it was coming when I went back to being a vegetarian last summer, so I started warning my husband then. But the movie Vegucated sort of cinched it for me last weekend. So on Monday I began a week-long experiment to see if I could handle being a vegan. The week’s not over yet, but I can already see that the experiment wasn’t necessary…there’s not much to handle, really. I’m a vegan.

I’ve got a butter substitute (that I love), a cream substitute (that I can deal with), a cheese substitute (that just reminds me that I don’t really need to have cheese on stuff), and I’m pretty much okay. I’ll miss eggs from time to time, hubby’s desserts will be off limits until he starts making vegan ones, and his mac and cheese will be missed, but that’s just about it.

It’s sort of like being a vegetarian in that you take it one meal and one day at a time. I’m in this for the ethical issues (I hate that the stuff I eat comes from the suffering, fear, pain, and death of helpless creatures), but also for the health and environmental issues. And I’m playing with the whole foods approach, so everything tastes amazing with great textures, plenty of flavor, and color. Bought the Forks over Knives Cookbook, which is lovely, and picked up a couple of vegan cookbooks at the library just to read for ideas. It’s all good and stupidly easy.

Anyway, if you’re thinking of going vegetarian or vegan, I recommend the movie Forks Over Knives (free on Hulu) for the health and science information. It’s a little heavy on the science in places, but those are also the parts of the movie that are the most compelling. And then try Vegucated (streaming on Netflix) for the animal welfare and environmental information. Vegucated is also nice cause it shows regular people going vegan for just 6 weeks.

Finished my third run for week 1 of the C25K, but I might do day 3 again just to be sure I’m ready to move on. Keeping the speed on 4.5mph for all but the last run, when I run an interval at 5mph. Yoga’s going well, and the weekends are reserved for longer walks with hubby…usually 3 miles each day, but with 7 inches of unpacked snow to walk on today, we did only 2 miles in about the same amount of time. So the vegan thing has had no impact on my energy level. If anything, I seem to be sleeping better at night.

I’ve used the C25K podcasts in the past, complained about the music, etc., so this time I thought I’d try something different and I got a Couch 2 5K app, and I’m on week 1, day 2 now.

It’s a good program, eases you into being a runner by keeping the challenges challenging, but doable. My first time through, I did 4-5 runs for each 3-run week, so it took a lot longer to make progress, but that was what I needed, slow and steady progress. What I wanted was a program I could have some control over so that I wasn’t pushed too fast, only to get disappointed. The C25K program pushes, but you can pace yourself, spend more time re-doing runs in a particular week, and set your own running pace.

When I first did the C25K program years ago, a “run” was 3.4-3.6 on the treadmill, a “walk” was 2.8-3.0. Now I’m fatter, but have more stamina from all the yoga and walking, so a walk is 3.2-3.5, and a run is 4.5 (with the occasional 5.0 thrown in for good measure). I’ve got short legs, so the most I ever expect to run is 5.0 with the occasional 5.5 thrown in. I’ll never win a race, but I will finish a 5K this year.

No yoga today, although I may pop in a pilates tape before hubby and I drive down to Ohio to have dinner with friends…skinny friends…damn them.